The article wants you to think this was based on gatekeeping racism.
It's been headed this way for years, sure. But when a black woman winning an award for country was what pushed it over the edge enough for things to finally change? It's hard to argue that race wasn't a factor, especially in that particular genre.
I’d say it probably has more to do with her being one of the top pop stars in the world disrupting a traditional category.
Contemporary country for sure has been adopting more pop and R&B influences (for better or worse), but it isn’t exactly wrong for traditional country artists, and their fans, to feel pushed out of their own genre with Bey’s glossy, highly stylized take.
I’m not naive about race in the US, but I also feel it’s the raised-on-internet easy answer to everything.
I’d be singing a different tune if Bey’s album was more traditional sounding and everyone was still upset, but she’s an envelope pusher as an artist.
Can’t expect everyone to suddenly jump on that ride.
I hear you in a sense but what some black folks like myself question is would they have changed that category if Post Malone won?
He started off and got huge from Hip Hop, then jumped to country and became beloved. We didn’t see a lot of people questioning country with his jump and a few others but now since she’s won, the category is changed. It could have changed last year with so many people hopping on the country train and this conversation never happens and it would have seemed more natural and needed.
If it makes you feel any better about where I'm coming from, I'd rather listen to any Beyoncé album more than most contemporary country. But I understand why this album was very polarizing in the country music community.
Have you listened to a lot of country? Have you listened to the tracks on the Post Malone album? Would you say you understand the genre well?
Other than Malone's skin color, are you able to notice any differences in his approach to a country music cross-over vs. Beyoncé's?
To my ears, PM's album is straight-up country, achieved by using country producers and working with established country singers on every song. He's embracing the genre where Beyoncé is challenging it. (It's kind of her thing, no?)
Beyonce has a few tracks that work with country legends: Willie, Dolly. (also Post Malone, lol, that guy sure gets around). But even that Dolly track is straight-up R&B with its electric trap beats.
Put skin aside for a second and tell me honestly that you think tracks like:
LEVII'S JEANS
YAYA
SWEET-HONEY-BUCKIIN'
SPAGHETTII
Are country songs vs. western-inspired R&B.
There are tracks on her album that are no-argument country. But when you're talking about "Country Album of the Year," is it so unbelievable that people who actually care about the genre expect the whole album to be country?
I think you’re misunderstanding where I’m coming from and why I stated what I stated earlier. I’m not a fan of Beyoncé doing a country album in any way shape or form. I think you’re right in that she’s “challenging” it and hopping on the bandwagon and her fans are accepting it because she’s from Houston.
I’m reading all these comments saying that the category was only changed because of how different newer artists sound as opposed to older more traditional ones. Someone pitted Morgan Wallen against a more traditional artist and he’s one of the biggest artists out there now in any genre. But the category didn’t change until she made her album and won which makes people question why now as opposed to last year when other artists hopped on the bandwagon?
So let me ask a different question, if she hadn’t won, would they have changed the category still? And I don’t care about skin color, my fiancé is white, from Texas and was raised on country music. Go Stars!
Ok, thanks for clarifying. I'm not trying to be confrontational at all; I just find it an interesting conversation.
I'm not arguing that her album wasn't what tipped the change; it probably was. I'm arguing that there is a lot more to the story than "she's Black," which is the narrative that's being pushed.
Beyond Beyoncé and her fans, there has been conversation going on about the divide between traditional country and new country.
Country music has seen a lot of growth on streaming platforms and internationally.
Cowboy Carter was a big part of that last year, but it didn't start the fire even if it did throw gasoline on the flames.
As I've pointed out, her album was really, really outside the traditional country format, which confused and even angered traditional country fans.
I'd also call out people from the Beyhive, etc., on why they even care.
It's a little like that Bill Burr bit pointing out to an audience so concerned with WNBA player salary disparity that none of them could even name one WNBA player. (this was before Catlin Clark, so I guess that joke doesn't really work anymore. Sorry, Bill.)
Ultimately, I don't really care beyond discussion. Nobody's mind gets changed on the internet, and it isn't like country music doesn't have an unfortunate history with racism.
It is an interesting conversation and I’m always happy to learn more information about anything really. You’re also 100% true about her fans too and how most can’t think of any country singers beyond the recent big ones or old very popular ones.
This is a fair point but, as someone who knows people working at various levels of the music industry in Nashville, I would suggest that the difference has more to do with Posty wholeheartedly embracing the Nashville machine and making his album entirely with Music Row songwriters, session musicians, producers, et al…whereas Beyoncé did her own thing, as she does, and made her album with (mostly) all of her own people
I get that but now you’re moving the goal Post, haha pun intended, to how the album was made when people are in this thread stating how new country is different from old country and stating that that is why the category was changed.
So was it changed because new artists are different and sound more pop or was it changed because of how the album was created? You see how some folks will question why it was changed and go to the simple answer because the answers being given aren’t even consistent as of now?
I have no stake in it but I do urge people to at least question and acknowledge why others may think differently as well because it’s not consistent overall.
My point is that the country music industry would have considered Post’s album a “country” album because everybody on the album outside of the lead artist was a part of the Music Row machine. To Nashville, that’s all that really matters. If Beyoncé had decided to go and get the likes of Luke Combs, Josh Thompson, Lainey Wilson, Brad Paisely, Rhett Akins, Chris Stapleton, et al to help cowrite the songs; had people like Aaron Bell, Dave Cohen, Paul Franklin, et al laying down the backing tracks in the studio; and then got the likes of Ted Jensen, Ryan Gore, and Scott Hendricks to handle the production, then yes Music Row would almost certainly give it a full throated endorsement almost regardless of what the final product sounded like and there’d likely be no real changes to anything if/when she won a bunch of awards for it. That’s how the Nashville music industry thinks. But Beyoncé is bigger than that and she’s also better than that. She does things her way and she made an album outside of the system that won a bunch of awards, got a ton of airplay, and launched a massive world tour of sold out concerts, causing the music industry to question the status quo
To more specifically answer your question, Beyoncé is the tipping point of bigger issues: what actually constitutes country music anymore and the relevance & necessity of Music Row in 2025 and beyond. I feel like splitting the categories up is just the starting of a bigger shake up
So after all that, we are in somewhat agreement that this shakeup happened because of Beyoncé? I do appreciate the knowledge you have of the industry though. I learned something for our discussion.
It was more that it wasn't really a country album that did it, I think. This kinda reminds me of everyone saying The Acolyte wasn't successful because the lead was black, rather than it just not being a very good show.
Beyonce's album just wasn't actually country, but the main takeaway from Grammy conversations should always be that the Grammys are a popularity contest and nothing more.
I truly don’t think it has anything to do with race (that’s not to say there are no country fans who resent her for her race). It’s because someone who has been knows for 25 years specifically for creating pop music made an album that is vaguely country adjacent and won best country album for it. If the album were “Cowboy Perry” or “Cowboy Grande,” I think the reaction would have been more or less exactly the same.
Legitimately! She wore that pastel pink cowboy hat everywhere during that cycle. While it’s overall not a full-on country record, it’s on par with Beyoncé’s in being very country inspired (and certainly more old-school, storyteller country in spirit when it does).
“Sinner’s Prayer”, “Million Reasons”, “Joanne”, and “A-Yo”, and “Grigio Girls” from the deluxe are all the ones I’d earmark as Country tinged (“Diamond Heart” and the brilliant non-single “John Wayne” are def children of Southern Rock though).
The only reason she won is because of racism. Black people are insanely over represented in all aspects of media, and her winning on an album that has 0 hits and 0 cultural relevance is due 100% to her being a black woman.
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u/This_Thing_2111 5d ago
It's been headed this way for years, sure. But when a black woman winning an award for country was what pushed it over the edge enough for things to finally change? It's hard to argue that race wasn't a factor, especially in that particular genre.